By Nury Vittachi

Friday, 30 March 2007

Virgin Comics' India series

WELCOME TO THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH. This is Ayodha, final dwelling place of humanity in a new comic book series called Ramayan 3392 AD.

*The most interesting recent publishing project in Asia has to be the tie-up between India's Gotham comic book company (Indian distributor of Spider-Man and traditional American comic books) and Virgin, the Richard Branson vehicle: their joint aim -- to launch comic books with themes from Indian classics. This was much discussed at the Children's Literature Association of India meeting I was at last week. The general feeling was that it was a brave venture and it would be interesting to see how it plays out. There are several things that make it special. First, the Hindu legends lend themselves to the comic book world -- the central characters have big personalities and amazing super powers. Second, they are "real" to modern readers in India to a much greater degree than Spider-Man is to readers in the West. Third, the project includes world-class names, such as John Woo and Deepak Chopra, which suggests that the budget behind the project is massive. Still, publishing ventures are notoriously risky -- especially ones with big upfront costs -- so it will be interesting to see how it spins out. I've contact the company for an update on how things are going, and will keep you informed.